The government has decided to enhance the penalty for flouting the workers’ safety rules especially by the apparel industry, commerce ministry officials said Tuesday.
The move has been taken apparently to appease the US Trade Representative, they said.
A 13-member committee, appointed by the commerce ministry on Tuesday, has been asked to give its recommendations to tighten the factory workers’ safety rules.
The committee, headed by joint secretary Atiqur Rahman, has been asked to submit the recommendations in 15 days.
It has also been asked to identify the barriers on the enforcement of the law and the ways for executing the penalties, said officials.
The recommendations will be incorporated in the labour law of 2006 and the other relevant laws, said commerce ministry officials.
The government has also taken the initiative to amend the labour law, they said.
Increasing the statutory penalty to ensure workers’ safety featured prominently in the 15 conditions the USTR set for restoring the Generalized System of Preference for Bangladesh which allowed certain of its products duty free entry into the US market.
The USTR has been asking the Bangladesh government to allow trade union rights of the workers at export processing zones and improve the shrimp sector’s labour standards.
It also has been pressing the government to increase the number of factory inspectors and for the cancellation of the licences of noncompliant apparel factories.
The USTR on June 27 scarped the GSP facilities for certain Bangladeshi products saying the workers’ safety in the country was not up to the mark.
At least 1,132 workers, mostly women, lost lives in the April 24 collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar that housed five apparel factories.
A devastating factory fire at Tazreen Fashions on 24 November 2012 at Ashulia killed at least 117 apparel workers, mostly women.
The apparel industry fetched around $24 billion out of the country’s $27 billion export earnings in the last fiscal.
-With New Age input
